The invention is generally directed to pre-curved gloves designed to fit the normal curvature of the hand at rest or the curved formation of the hand in certain sporting activities, and in particular, to pre-curved glove patterns utilizing a gunn cut construction with enhanced fit in the palm region and fingers.
The public has come to see an increasing need for pre-shaped glove patterns which enhance the feel of the glove. Generally, the hand at rest is not in a position in which the fingers are straight, extending outwardly from the palm. Rather, the most comfortable at rest position is one in which the fingers are gently curved inwardly toward the palm. Accordingly, there is a need for gloves which are to be worn in a variety of activities, and, in particular, for skiing, snowboarding and other outdoor activities where warmth is required, to keep the fingers of the hand in a natural position. There is a similar need in sailing, golf, racquetball, squash, driving and industrial gloves. In the event that a glove is designed with straight fingers, there will be a stress between the fingers and the glove as the fingers try to maintain their comfortable, at rest curved position against the straight fingers of the glove.
Traditionally, the method used for pre-shaping of gloves is to make the back of the glove longer than the palm and introduce pre-shaped fourchettes and side walls to balance the sewing of the glove. In a traditional glove the glove includes a palm portion which includes the palm side of the fingers; a back portion which generally also includes the back portion of the fingers; fourchettes which provide the panels between the palm and back portions in the finger region; and side walls, on the outside of the hand and index finger.
In my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,216, the pre-shaping of the gloves to introduce the curvature is accomplished by cutting a straight fourchette, rather than the more traditionally curved fourchettes, and darting sections thereof to control the pre-shaping at more specific points. The darting reduces the length of the fourchette along the palm side of the glove, thereby allowing it to fit to the shortened palm fingers. However, when it comes to gunn cut patterns, there is no fourchette. So the pre-shaping is very hard to control in making the finger (gunn sections) shorter than the back. Also, there tends to be too much material on the palm portion of a gunn cut glove, which makes curling the fingers inward to make a fist difficult due to the excess material there. Accordingly, there is a need to remove material. In addition, even if material is removed, there tends to be a difficulty in making a fist and an improvement in this area which enhances the ability of a gunn cut construction glove includes a reduced area of the palm which is windowed with a guard or patch. In this way the bending in the area of the palm where the hand actually bends is enhanced. There is also a need to enhance the volume of the fingers in a gunn cut construction.